How Much Watching Time Do You Have This Weekend?

No matter how much free time you have this weekend, we have TV recommendations for you. Come back every Friday for new suggestions from our TV critic on what to watch.

This Weekend I Have … 90 Minutes and an Open Heart

‘Call the Midwife Holiday Special,’ Sunday, 7:30 p.m., PBS

“Call The Midwife” takes a trip to South Africa, where everyone helps out at a free clinic and tries to save the ailing doctor who runs it. As always, the lay staff and the nuns of Nonnatus House achieve great things thanks to their British can-do spirits, their devotion to one anther, and their passion for women’s health care. Barbara (Charlotte Ritchie) even gets in a good monologue about the dangers of overpraising temporary volunteer efforts.

This is better if you’re already a “Midwife” fan. But it’s still enjoyable if you aren’t but you’re looking for stories about midwifery and camaraderie in 1961. (Add the series to your Watchlist.)

… 90 Minutes and a Big Blue Phone Booth

This year’s Christmas Special is far breezier than last year’s emotionally crushing one, plus this is totally watchable for “Who” newbies: In it, the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) accidentally makes a little boy into the Whovian version of Superman and then returns to New York to find him all grown up, saving people but also living his secret Clark Kent life. Like most “Doctor Who” episodes, this is fine for young viewers, as long as they can handle slightly creepy brains in jars. With … eyeballs. (Add the series to your Watchlist.)

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A scene from “Sense8: A Christmas Special.”CreditNetflix

… 2 Hours, and I Loved ‘Sense8’

If only more streaming shows did holiday special one-offs. The Wachowski sisters’ sprawling, sometimes convoluted sci-fi series, “Sense8,” debuted in June 2015 and hasn’t had a new installment since; this episode will have to be enough to sate fans until the show returns for Season 2 in May. If you’re not already a devout viewer, this two-hour bacchanalia won’t hold much appeal beyond the show’s basic orgies-and-intrigue format. But if that’s your jam, rejoice in this Festivus miracle.

The special picks up more or less where Season 1 left off, with eight psychically-connected “sensates” telepathically traversing the globe to be there for one another in moments of crisis (prison fights, losing one’s virginity) and moments of joy (birthdays, above; and, yes, Christmas). (Add the series to your Watchlist.)